No Shit Headline of the Day

Fewer modern farmers rely on almanacs for insights

Who would have guessed that massively vague weather forecasts made a year in advance that say something like, "Dec. 3-6, windy, cold" aren't very useful, or that planting and chores done based on lunar phases isn't based on any science or logic?  I always buy an almanac, but I laugh after big snowstorms when somebody tells me the almanac predicted it, but they predicted an even bigger one is coming later in the season.  I usually try to get them to bet on it.  Anyway, we can always count on a story hitting the news wire each year when the new almanacs come out.  At least we can count on some traditions:

 The 2013 edition of the Old Farmer's Almanac hit shelves Wednesday.

"In the early days, I suppose it used to be the main source of information, maybe the only source of information," said Annie Cheatham, executive director of the New England Farmers Union, which gets a copy of the Old Farmer's Almanac every year. "Of course, that's changed a lot with satellite information."

The 221-year-old Old Farmer's Almanac based in New Hampshire — not to be confused with the slightly younger Farmer's Almanac based in Maine — predicts a cold winter in the East, South and Southwest and a mild winter in the Midwest, heartland and West Coast. Summer, however, will be warmer on the West and East Coasts and cooler throughout the rest of the country.

The Old Farmer's Almanac, which boasts a 3.1 million print circulation plus digital versions, is used by all audiences, not just farmers, editor Janice Stillman said.

One of my other favorite bits of folk lore is that potatoes should be planted on Good Friday.  Nothing like using a day which may fall anytime within about a 36 or so day period.  I take that to mean that late March or early April is a good time to plant potatoes, not that I have to plant them on Good Friday.